Lex Smith (known to some as Lady Nom) is known across Manchester for her supper clubs: in fact I’ve been to one and loved it. Her and Missus Nom, Sheila, create a fantastic welcoming atmosphere, as well as some seriously delicious and creative food.
However, her company, NomSense, is branching out a little further. Now not only there for supper clubs and catering, but moving into products – condiments and teas. And though I love teas, it’s the condiments that have me really excited. High quality local ingredients and, as you’ll see, they have experimentation written all over them.
The full range covers both sweet and savoury and though the site has recipes on it, the idea behind these jars is that they are there to be played with. So, gathering some creative friends together and having a chat, we decided to experiment ourselves.
First up is the cider jelly. Yes, cider jelly. Great on toast; it reminds me of the crab apple jelly of my childhood, it’s sweet, full of apple flavour, but still somehow manages to keep the tang of a good cider.
But as mentioned above, these are for playing with, experimenting with. So rather than toast, I went with pork loin steaks and used a spoon full of the jelly with a smidge of gin and the pan juices from the pork – the easiest sauce in the world. I can see it glazing pork just as well as I can imagine it on apple and cinnamon hot cross buns.
The second jar, lemon curd, is so good I want to bury my face in it. A really good lemon curd is something that when you find it, you don’t even need a spoon. This would be fantastic in an Eton mess, on icecream even with a scone and cream instead of jam. However, in the spirit of experimentation, I handed it to Cake Correspondent Andy and let her go wild. Keep an eye out for the recipe to follow.
The Chardonnay jelly is inspired. I’ve played with making redcurrant and red wine jelly before, but never a wine on it’s own. Though I had one or two ideas, I handed this to Iain Devine for him to play with…and he did! He created the most incredible marsala sauce, the jelly added a level to it not expected. It was so rich, and full of flavour, I wanted to find a straw and drink it from the jug. I didn’t, but it was a damn close run thing.
Halfway through and we come to the mustard mayonnaise. This is spicy without too much heat and really plays on the combination of creamy mayonnaise and slightly spiky, warm mustard. We didn’t play too hard with this. It went on some very rare beef in a bagel with dill pickles. It’s at this point I have to confess there is no picture of the finished sandwich. Both Mr GFB and I ate them before taking a picture – though I did remember to photograph the beef.
Onto the marmalade – this is a lot less bitter than most marmalades on the shelves – but loses nothing in flavour. If anything you get more of the light sweeter notes of the orange and yes, it goes great on toast.
Though I pictured cakes, marmalade pulled pork, and even cocktails; I handed it over to pastry chef Jessica who went on to create icecream – with assistance from her colleagues at Australasia.
The result? A light flavour filled icecream that as chef himself said would work perfectly with a chocolate fondant – from my point of view the version of the icecream with a touch of whisky in it was even better, the whisky giving a little background to the orange, a little more complexity. Either way, this ones a winner too.
Finally we have the beetroot chutney. This is round, earthy, almost creamy in taste and texture. The site has it’s own suggestions, including muffins and curry, but I have plans for this. I’m thinking a thin shortcrust pastry base, layer of the chutney and some creamy goats cheese.
Right, that’s tonight’s dinner sorted. Now Lex, about these teas…
2 thoughts on “Review: NomSense”